Star Wars: Bounty Hunters, Vol. 4: Crimson Reign

Star Wars: Bounty Hunters

by Ethan Sacks, Ramón F. Bachs (Illustrator), Paolo Villanelli (Illustrator)

In the wake of the shocking events of WAR OF THE BOUNTY HUNTERS, the underworld has become more dangerous than ever. T’onga has assembled the greatest squad of bounty hunters in the galaxy — including Bossk, Zuckuss and Tasu Leech — for a special mission! But as T’onga grieves the loss of an old friend, can she keep this ragtag band from killing each other long enough to become a real team? Hopefully so — because with the Crimson Dawn organization leading the galaxy into all-out war, they’re running out of time to save the one young girl who can stop the conflict between syndicates! Meanwhile, a mysterious bounty hunter is out to assassinate a high-ranking Imperial officer in a daring hit on a heavily armed cruiser. But have they been given the right target?

COLLECTING: Star Wars: Bounty Hunters (2020) 18-22

Genres: Star Wars, Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Marvel, Fantasy, Fiction

120 pages, Paperback

First published August 30, 2022

About the author

Ethan Sacks is a writer and journalist from New York, who is currently writing the ongoing series Star Wars- Bounty Hunters for Marvel as well as other various Star Wars titles. He is also know for his Marvel works that take place in the iconic Old Man Logan wasteland, Old Man Hawkeye and Old Man Quill.

Reviews

[Benji Glaab · Rating 3 out of 5]

Plenty of carry over form the last volume which I don't recall enjoying all that much.

I can say that I am starting to become more familiar with the cast. Eventhough there could be better banter and quips starting to enjoy their dynamics a little more.

Paolo Viallanelli is the artist for the back half of the volume and it shines. Major upgrade for sure some very exciting panels with gritty backdrops.

Overall this run has been the epitome of middling quality Not sure how much run time this series will get but I have faith it could get better.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25
Largely forgettable. I hardly remember what it was about. Perhaps I read too many comics. Some good character moments. I would like betters stories from the Star Wars line with top tier talent.

[Khurram · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Great artwork and story or stories. Valance's story and the other Bounty Hunters are on separate paths with the Chrimson Dawn and Underworld war going on in the back ground.These are five action packed issues all in one book.

Valance has had 2 meetings with his hero in the past now the third could be their last. The Bounty Hunters are on a quest to regain the heir to the Unbroken Clan and the Mourner's Wail. But they will have to take on both factions just for starters.

I can't wait to see what is next and I uope Valance and the Bounty Hunters paths converge. The book finishes with a varient cover gallery.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story takes a pretty severe turn away from our conflicted cyborg buddy Valance this volume and focusses on a bunch of other original characters (plus Bossk, 4LOM, Zuckuss and Dengar because why not?) for several issues. It was…fine.

[Matthew Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I’ve pretty well gotten to the point that I’m really enjoying only the storyline that follows Valance in this series. I know this one was cancelled recently as of the time of writing this review, and I can’t say I’m too surprised, unfortunately.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art moves to a more cartoony style for characters, but the ship art is still crisp and the color is still on-point. Valence sticks around for another couple of issues, which surprised me since I thought he would be over in the Darth Vader series full time going forward. We get a nice resolution for the ongoing Zuckuss/4-LOM arc from War of the Bounty hunters. This series has definitely increased my appreciation for those two.

Also, there's a fight in an arena, a recurring motif which I'm developing a personal vendetta against.

[Sarospice · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite series right now. Things have gotten pretty deep with the characterization so definitely start at the start. Probably the best handling of this Crimson Dawn mess... Because the bounty hunters are so slippery between the empire and alliance already .. I don't want to spoil what's going on for Valance right now... But you'll shed a tear at the tender friendship going on between 4-elom and Zukkus. Bounty hunters have feelings too!

[BiblioBeruthiel · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

Very on board with anything about Valance at this point. They've done a great job of giving him an interesting storyline and I'm so ready to see him eventually catch a damn break. The rest of the group I'm less interested in here, with the exception of Zuckuss (and 4LOM) who I'm mildly obsessed with.

[Tyler Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

See “Crimson Reign” review for in depth thoughts.

[ambyr · Rating 2 out of 5]

I continue to care about none of these people. Are they important to the broader crossover event? Maybe, and yet: still don't care. I think I'm done with this particular run.

[Adam Fisher · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Stars.
Ok, this title now officially joins "Doctor Aphra" as being no longer on my radar to read.
It's not a bad story, and if you like all the various SW bounty hunters, you will probably love this. Just not in my field of interest any longer. I'm not invested in any of the characters enough to care.
Might come back to the title at some point.

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Bounty Hunter portion of the Crimson Reign saga flits about the edges of the saga, and is so peripheral as to feel like a tacked on effort to make it a whole-line crossover rather than a well plotted story.

[CzasoStrefa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Przyznam szczerze, że jest to moje pierwsze podejście do serii Łowców Nagród. Czy sięgnęłam po komiks tylko ze względu na crossover? Owszem. Być może spodoba mi się na tyle, by kontynuować tę historię.
Po Wojnie Łowców Nagród życie stało się jeszcze bardziej niebezpieczne niż zwykle.
Czy uda się powstrzymać Szkarłatny Świt?
Po walce z Bobą Fettem dla Valance’a nie było już nadziei na przetrwanie. Pojawiło się jednak światełko w tunelu. A raczej miecz świetlny Dartha Vadera, który naprawił cybernetycznego łowcę i zmusił do współpracy. Mroczny Lord nadal jest wściekły na Szkarłatny Świt. Organizacja upokorzyła Imperium. Wywołując wojnę syndykatów, sprawiła, że sprzymierzeńcy Imperatora zwrócili się przeciw niemu. Postanowiono zniszczyć Qi’rę i Świt. Najlepiej zacząć od szpiegów. Zadanie Valance’a polegało na unieszkodliwieniu zdrajców.
W tym czasie pozostali łowcy wspominają swojego „zmarłego” przyjaciela. Jednak nie ma czasu na płacz. Szkarłatny Świt porwał dziewczynkę, będącą dziedziczką dwóch frakcji w tym jednej pod nazwą „Klan Niepokonanych”. Jeszcze tego brakowało, żeby Qi’ra nie tylko wprowadzała chaos, ale i miała władzę nad wszystkimi.
Pojawia się również Bossk. Nie sądzę, aby był nudny. Po prostu tutaj pokazano go, jako typowego osiłka, którego musi mieć każda drużyna. Trandoshianin nie irytował swoim zachowaniem. Chętnie zobaczę jego przyszłe występy. Być może bohater ten zostanie bardziej rozwinięty.
O Tasu Leech to nawet nie wiem, co powiedzieć. Nie zainteresował mnie w ogóle. Prawdę mówiąc, nie wiele udało mi się zapamiętać z jego poczynań.
Pozostaje jeszcze T’onga. Nowa przywódczyni łowców, zajmująca miejsce „zmarłego” Valance’a. Jako świeża liderka sprawdziła się bardzo dobrze. Podobało mi się, że nie zrobiono z niej od razu perfekcyjnej szefowej. Czasem coś się nie udało, innym razem musiała pokazać, iż potrafi myśleć szybko w kryzysowej sytuacji i wyciągnąć drużynę z opresji. Jej żona, Losha, wykazała się natomiast talentem snajperskim i brakiem charakteru. Postać ma potencjał i czekam na dalsze rozwinięcie.
Kreski artystów są spójne i nie odcinają się zbyt od siebie. Jestem pod wrażeniem tego, co dzieje się w kadrach. A dzieje się dużo.
Ethan Sacks, scenarzysta komiksu, rozbudził moją ciekawość. Nie mogę doczekać się tego, co będzie dalej, gdy łowcy dotrą do „Vermillionu”.
Gorącą zachęcam do zapoznania się pozycją Łowcy nagród: Szkarłatne rządy. To świetna historia, która coraz bardziej zbliża nas do upadku Szkarłatnego Świtu.

Więcej na: CzasoStrefa

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 4.
As Valance is forced to become Darth Vader's agent, his bounty hunter comrades, including Bossk, Zuckuss and Tassu Leech, put together a plan to rescue Cadelilah from Crimson Dawn.

Valance's story here feels very familiar, with him being forced to work for the Empire when Vader threatens those he cares about. It's kind of a deal-with-the-devil cliche and whilst the TIE Fighter combat scenes of his story were great, overall his part of this book isn't terribly interesting.

Thankfully, the story focusing on T'onga's team of bounty hunters was interesting.
Here Sacks finally goes all-out in exploring the story potential of having a team of ruthless underworld killers as protagonists taking on even more ruthless underworld killers. What also surprised me was how compelling the author makes the bounty hunter characters and how their relationships with each other were actually engaging. Sure there's the cliched 'killers threatening to kill each other even though they're on the same side' trope, but there's also some genuine heart too. There's the connection between T'onga and her wife Losha, the rivalry between Bossk and Tassu Leech and, my favourite, the honest friendship between Zuckuss and 4-LOM. Those latter two have been favourites of mine since the old EU anthology 'Tales of the Bounty Hunters', so it was nice to see them done justice again.

This is an impressive upswing in quality for this series and genuinely left me hungry for more, something which the previous books had failed to do.

* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

With Valance conscripted into Empire service, the focus shifts to T'onga and her quest for vengeance, even as Crimson Dawn continue to move their pawns around the galaxy right under the Emperor's nose.

The change in focus here was unexpected, but Valance has been co-opted over in Darth Vader's series instead. At least the characters we move onto have been established already, so they're not just taking over from nowhere, so I'm guessing this was planned a while ago to allow for time to do just that. This feels like the first time War Of The Bounty Hunters has actually had an impact on a book, because we spend two or three issues here rebuilding the team (quite literally, in 4-LOM's case), and the machinations of the crime syndicates have been reverberating through Doctor Aphra's book as well. It goes a long way not only towards making the books feel more cohesive but actually making the 'event' make sense as to why it happened in the first place.

Series artist Paolo Villanelli handles the back half of this book, with Ramon Bachs stepping in for two issues to start us off. I feel like this is the first time Villanelli has stepped away in the entire series run, so that's impressive in and of itself.

Bounty Hunters may be a different book now, but it's still fun, and easily proving itself an unmistakeable part of the Star Wars tapestry.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

3-4 ABY

This graphic novel is the fourth volume in the Star Wars Bounty Hunters series containing issues 18-22. In this volume, it almost feels more like reading the Darth Vader series when it comes to what is happening in Valance's storyline. He currenly serves one purpose or he loses the only person he cares about: serve Darth Vader. Being used to wipe out not only Crimson Dawn agents, but those within the Empire Vader deems unworthy, makes for quite the task. Meanwhile, the main crew of bounty hunters (Bossk, Zuckuss, and Tasu Leech, and T'onga) are tasked with finding Cadeliah, a girl with ties to two criminal organizations that brings hop in joining the two rival syndicates together. The race is on to capture this much-wanted person, and Crimson Dawn's make for syndicate war sure isn't making things any easier.

If you have read the short on Four-Eloem and Zuckuss, you know that Four-Eloem was hacked to become an assassin droid. I appreciate his reappearance here and how he gets incorporated back into the story. The art is good, but Bounty Hunters is probably my least favorite of the comics series. I think the search for Cadeliah is interesting and find her character adds a bit mor flavor to this story line. The best part about this series is certainly Valance. It will be interesting to see what his fate ultimately becomes.

[Jamieson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Bounty Hunters series is an interesting one for me. Probably not my favorite of the ongoing Star Wars lines (Star Wars, Darth Vader, Doctor Aphra and Bounty Hunters), it's still a enjoyable story that keeps me interested to see how things turn out. Following on the heels of the previous crossover event War of the Bounty Hunters, Crimson Reign is a much less connected crossover. Whereas with War, I felt lost when there ended up being time in between reading the different volumes, these feel much more standalone. The plot focus on two main threads. In one, the now Valance-less core group is still hunting down the child heir to two warring syndicates, hoping to find her before Crimson Dawn does. In the second, Valance finds himself once again a part of the Empire, under the control of Darth Vader, and being used as an assassin. The story was an enjoyable read. The art isn't as good as I prefer, being a more darker, gritty style. I've seen worse though, and this was a decent story that left me wanting to find out what happens next, so I'll call that a win.

[Shaun Stanley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Star Wars: Bounty Hunters Vol. 4 Crimson Reign collects issues 18-22 of the Marvel Comics series written by Ethan Sacks and art by Ramón F. Backs and Paolo Villanelli.

After the events of “War of the Bounty Hunters”, Valence is thought to be dead by the rest of the bounty hunters, but has actually been captured by the Empire, rebuilt with upgrades, and being made to work for Darth Vader. Meanwhile, Bossk, Zuckuss, and the rest of the crew are on a mission to rescue Cadeliah, heir to the Unbroken Clan and possibly the only person that can stop the war between the crime syndicates.

The Bounty Hunters series started off really, really, REALLY bad, but it’s finally starting to find its stride. Valence is finally interesting having to do his sworn enemy Darth Vader’s biddings. For the rest of the bounty hunters, they always seem to be in over their heads and close to losing before pulling out a win. I do enjoy Zuckuss and Bossk’s banter. Hopefully the series continues to improve, but I’m hoping for some more self contained stories.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 1 out of 5]

The bits at the beginning of Crimson Reign featuring Valance's unexpected resurrection at the hands of Darth Vader are intriguing (though completely wasted in the Darth Vader series' Crimson Reign tie-in). Then we shift focus to the uninteresting band of bounty hunters who are out to get revenge of some forgettable crime syndicate.

In theory, Bossk and Zuckuss are interesting characters, right? In the classic Expanded Universe, they were fairly formidable. Here, they're basically identical to the nameless, faceless bounty hunters they're teaming up with or fighting against. This whole Bounty Hunters series is an exercise in tedious battles, bland dialogue, and lack of foresight.

The Star Wars and Doctor Aphra Crimson Reign tie-ins were surprisingly good, so it only makes sense that the Bounty Hunters and Darth Vader tie-ins would be awful. There must be balance in the Force!

[Joey Nardinelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

So the last stand-alone of this series I seemed to like much more than this volume. After a delay of several months, I return to this series pretty unfamiliar with all the humanoid female characters and caring even less than usual about Valance. Bossk is comedy, and Zuckuss is to some extent similar to Tasu Leech. Dengar is roaming around in the background. The strife between the various factions of the syndicates just…isn’t interesting. Couple that with the presence of something like 5-8 syndicates and you’re just leaving too much unclear content within each of these hurried issues. There are moments and pages that I really enjoyed here, but in the whole, I feel like this will remain deeply forgettable.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Bounty Hunters comic remains to be my least favorite of the ongoing Star Wars comics. I thought it had enough of a story of a mini-series, but then it just kept on going and going. And now it has a pretty crazy story with a lot of running around with occasional battles and squabbles.

Zuckuss is probably the surprise gem of this book. He started out a little crazy but this volume reinforces why he's an actual bounty hunter and a pretty effective one. Plus we finally deal with his 4LOM problem that has been running for a while.

But again, like the other ongoing Star Wars comics, this barely had any connection to the Crimson Reign "event" apart from these events generally taking place at around the same time as the mini-series.

[Ahdom · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun volume, keeping readers informed of the goings-on of the Bounty Hunters story through the Crimson Reign period. Of all the series going on through the Crimson Reign, I think I am least wrapped up in the Bounty Hunters line. There is great artwork and the characters are great, but I am not sure how much this story needed to be told. Still worth the read, but I am definitely ready for something fresh in this line that is more divorced from the larger narrative of Star Wars in this era. Perhaps as we near the Return of the Jedi events, we can see where the story goes!

[Luana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Consistently entertaining action series with a solid gimmick crew:

- lesbians
- Bossk who seems to be stuck in an eternal "regrowing limbs" side gag
- Zuckuss and 4LOM's incongruously wholesome friendship
- Tasu Leech (aka The Raid guy from Force Awakens) who is constantly challenging himself to be DE MOST COMPLEET FIGHTER Boyka style

Vader and Beilert are an obvious match-up: what if someone went through Anakin's post-Mustafar cyborg ordeal without being a Jedi? This storyline fades into the background in the latter half of the book, but the T'onga gang's kidnapping of General Devorah is a fun replacement.

[Cale · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's an awful lot of action here, with the first issue focusing on Valance taking down an Imperial for Vader, and the last two issues being a non-stop brawl/heist through Coronet City. Art works well, and most of the characters get a chance to shine, but though there's a lot of action, there isn't a whole lot of plot moving forward in either of the stories. This is basically an exercise in teams trying to take down Crimson Dawn fronts (real or imagined). Decent but forgettable.

[Noah Vance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Continued re-read. A little bit of catch-up and context for where Valance is (leading Dark Squadron for Vader…who immediately takes him off Dark Squadron to stand around and watch atrocities in the Vader run, but ok…) and then the rest of our cast kidnaps Vukorah to find Cadeliah cuz reasons. It’d be a two star if I didn’t like the rest of the cast, but they’re good’ns.

[Stephen Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s enjoyably action packed, but the internecine conflicts between different rival criminal organisations is so complex, that I can never keep track of which is which. And perhaps it doesn’t matter. Just sit back and enjoy the ride.

[Mario · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Star Wars: Bounty Hunters Vol. 4" is the title which compiles issues 18-22 as part of the "Crimson Reign" crossover event, written by Ethan Sacks, with art by Ramon Bachs, Paolo Villaneli, Bryan Valenza and Arif Prianto.

In this volume, the group of hunters try to rescue Cadeliah, and must help Zuckuss rejoin with his old partner, 4-LOM, and then they attempt to kidnap the Unbroken Clan's new self-appointed leader, Vukorah. There's a lot of action and the art is fantastic, shining in the Zuckuss/4-LOM reunion, but also the entire battle in Corellia is an enormous set piece.

In my opinion the best of the crossover-adjacent stories for Crimson Reign, recommended!

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

the two events "War of the Bounty Hunters" and "Crimson Reign" were pretty good. However this format of collection is very annoying - to read them you basically have to alternate between 5+ books, reading one chapter from each at a time.

[devyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

where is valance is he safe is he alright

[Sam Nicholson · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10